Donald J. Guter (pictured), who served as dean of Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh from 2003 through 2008, will be the next president and dean of South Texas College of Law in Houston. STCL, Houston’s oldest law school, announced Guter’s selection today. Michael S. Hays, STCL board chairman and co-chairman of the law school’s dean search committee, says the school received about 20 applicants for the post in a nationwide search and interviewed six candidates between December 2008 and March of this year before selecting Guter. Hays, a shareholder in Houston’s Hays, McConn, Rice & Pickering, writes in the release announcing Guter’s selection, “We feel extremely fortunate to have a person of his stature and caliber join the college.” Guter currently is on the faculty at Duquesne law school, where he received his law degree in 1977. He served in the U.S. Navy for 32 years, retiring in 2002 as a rear admiral, Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Guter will assume his new position on Aug. 1, following the retirement of James J. Alfini, who has served as STCL’s president and dean since 2003. Among his priorities, Guter says, will be making sure STCL is fully accredited again and helping to map out a new strategic plan for law school over the next five years. Fundraising will be another priority, Guter says. “I want to get out there and raise as much money as I can so we will have the resources we need,” he says.
UPDATE: Sheila Hansel, spokeswoman for South Texas College of Law, says STCL has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1959 and the law school has never lost its accreditation. “Every seven years we go through an inspection process,” Hansel says. “The next time is in 2010.”
-- Mary Alice Robbins
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